T'ta Professor

Hilarious and disturbing...I have never read anything like it...Joshi is a genius'Khushwant SinghA thin short man with illusions of grandeur Khashtivallabh Pant Dubbul MA is a school teacher in a remote Kumaoni village where he is mockingly referred to as T'ta Professor. A great admirer of the Englishman's attire T'ta is also deeply in awe of the white man's language. He always carries a notebook to jot down English words that he hears for the first time acknowledging a word as acceptable only after he has consulted his Oxford Dictionary. His vanity makes him a terrific target for lampooning and the narrator in this novel a writer who never manages to finish the stories he sets out to write is determined to produce a biting satire' and wastes no time finding out more about T'ta's life.When T'ta starts to tell his tale what begins as an innocent idyll turns quickly into an erotic and scatological romp and T'ta turns from a ridiculous comic character into a pathetic pervert. As the story unravels the multiple narratives reveal a complex figure comic and tragic by turns and the novel changes gear and darkens into a gothic bleakness of unimaginable dimensions.Translated brilliantly by Ira Pande this gem of a book will soon establish itself as a classic'The Statesman An excellent translation'Urvashi Butalia OutlookThis translation will re-invent Manohar Shyam Joshi for a generation not acquainted with the genius'Mail TodayThis bittersweet tale of a chimerical character is revealingly quirky'Time OutIra Pande has done a remarkable translation. She has retained the authenticity of the original voice while retelling the story as a good English novel'Deccan HeraldA true classic to which Ira Pande's translation does justice'Elle